My name is Ursus Wehrli, and I would like to talk to you this morning about my project, Tidying Up Art. First of all -- any questions so far? First of all, I have to say I'm not from around here. I'm from a completely different cultural area, maybe you noticed? I mean, I'm wearing a tie, first. And then secondly, I'm a little bit nervous because I'm speaking in a foreign language, and I want to apologize in advance, for any mistakes I might make. Because I'm from Switzerland, and I just don't hope you think this is Swiss German I'm speaking now here. This is just what it sounds like if we Swiss try to speak American. But don't worry -- I don't have trouble with English, as such. I mean, it's not my problem, it's your language after all. (Laughter) I am fine. After this presentation here at TED, I can simply go back to Switzerland, and you have to go on talking like this all the time. (Laughter)
Moje ime je Ursus Wehrli i htio bih vam pričati o mom projektu, Uređivanju umjetnosti. Prvo – ima li nekih pitanja do sada? Moram reći da ja nisam odavde. Ja sam iz potpuno drugačije kulture, možda ste primijetili? Mislim, prvo, nosim kravatu. Drugo, malo sam nervozan zato što pričam stranim jezikom i želim se ispričati unaprijed za sve pogreške koje učinim. Zato jer sam iz Švicarske i nadam se da ne mislite da je ovo švicarsko-njemački jezik kojim sada pričam. Ovo je samo onako kako zvuči kada mi Švicarci probamo pričati američki. Ali ne brinite – nemam problema s engleskim, kao takvim. Mislim, nije to moj problem, to je vaš jezik. (smijeh) Meni je dobro. Poslije ove prezentacije na TED-u, mogu se slobodno vratiti u Švicarsku, a vi morate pričati ovako cijelo vrijeme. (smijeh)
So I've been asked by the organizers to read from my book. It's called "Tidying Up Art" and it's, as you can see, it's more or less a picture book. So the reading would be over very quickly. But since I'm here at TED, I decided to hold my talk here in a more modern way, in the spirit of TED here, and I managed to do some slides here for you. I'd like to show them around so we can just, you know -- (Laughter) Actually, I managed to prepare for you some enlarged pictures -- even better.
Organizator me zmolio da čitam iz svoje knjige. Zove se – Uređivanje umjetnosti i, kao što vidite, to je manje ili više slikovnica. Čitanje bi jako brzo završilo. Ali kada sam već na TED-u, odlučio sam održati govor ovdje na moderan način, u duhu TED-a, načinio sam nekoliko slajdova za vas. Pokazao bih vam ih, tako da možemo, znate – (smijeh) Zapravo, uspio sam vam prirediti neke povećane slike – još bolje.
So Tidying Up Art, I mean, I have to say, that's a relatively new term. You won't be familiar with it. I mean, it's a hobby of mine that I've been indulging in for the last few years, and it all started out with this picture of the American artist, Donald Baechler I had hanging at home. I had to look at it every day and after a while I just couldn't stand the mess anymore this guy was looking at all day long. Yeah, I kind of felt sorry for him. And it seemed to me even he felt really bad facing these unorganized red squares day after day. So I decided to give him a little support, and brought some order into neatly stacking the blocks on top of each other. (Laughter) Yeah. And I think he looks now less miserable. And it was great. With this experience, I started to look more closely at modern art. Then I realized how, you know, the world of modern art is particularly topsy-turvy.
Uređivanje umjetnosti, moram reći, to je relativno novi pojam. Još vam nije poznat. To je moj hobi kojemu se odajem posljednjih nekoliko godina. Sve je počelo sa slikom američkog umjetnika, Donalda Baechlera, koja mi je visjela na zidu kod kuće. Morao sam je gledati svaki dan i nakon nekog vremena nisam više mogao podnijeti nered koji je ovaj tip gledao cijeli dan. Malo mi ga je bilo nekako žao. Činilo mi se da se čak i on osjećao loše gledajući u ove neorganizirane crvene kvadrate dan za danom. Pa sam mu odlučio malo pomoći i unijeti neki red u to, uredno slažući kocke jednu na drugu. (smijeh) Jee Mislim da sad izgleda manje nesretno. Bilo je odlično. S ovim iskustvom, počeo sam gledati malo temeljitije na modernu umjetnost. Shvatio sam tada da je svijet moderne umjetnosti naročito zbrkan.
And I can show here a very good example. It's actually a simple one, but it's a good one to start with. It's a picture by Paul Klee. And we can see here very clearly, it's a confusion of color. (Laughter) Yeah. The artist doesn't really seem to know where to put the different colors. The various pictures here of the various elements of the picture -- the whole thing is unstructured. We don't know, maybe Mr. Klee was probably in a hurry, I mean -- (Laughter) -- maybe he had to catch a plane, or something. We can see here he started out with orange, and then he already ran out of orange, and here we can see he decided to take a break for a square. And I would like to show you here my tidied up version of this picture. (Laughter) We can see now what was barely recognizable in the original: 17 red and orange squares are juxtaposed with just two green squares. Yeah, that's great. So I mean, that's just tidying up for beginners. I would like to show you here a picture which is a bit more advanced. (Laughter)
Mogu vam pokazati jako dobar primjer. Jednostavan je, ali je jako dobar za početak. To je Paul Kleeova slika. Možemo jasno vidjeti da je to zbunjenost boja. (smijeh) Je Umjetnik očito ne zna gdje da stavi različite boje. Razne slike od različitih elemenata slike - cijela stvar je nestrukturirana. Ne znamo, možda je gosp. Klee bio u žurbi, (smijeh) možda je morao stići na avion, ili nešto. Možemo vidjeti da je počeo s narančastom i već mu je ponestalo narančaste. Ovdje možemo vidjeti da je odlučio uzeti pauzu za kvadrat. Htio bih vam pokazati moju uređeniju verziju ove slike. (smijeh) Ovdje možemo vidjeti nešto što je bilo jedva prepoznatljivo u originalu: 17 crvenih i narančastih kvadrata nasuprot dva zelena kvadrata. Da, odlično je. Mislim, to je sređivanje umjetnosti za početnike. Htio bih da vidite sliku koja je malo naprednija. (smijeh)
What can you say? What a mess. I mean, you see, everything seems to have been scattered aimlessly around the space. If my room back home had looked like this, my mother would have grounded me for three days. So I'd like to -- I wanted to reintroduce some structure into that picture. And that's really advanced tidying up. (Applause) Yeah, you're right. Sometimes people clap at this point, but that's actually more in Switzerland. (Laughter) We Swiss are famous for chocolate and cheese. Our trains run on time. We are only happy when things are in order.
Što biste rekli? Koji nered! Vidite, sve se čini kao da je raspršeno bez cilja po prostoru. Da je moja soba doma izgledala ovako, moja majka bi mi zabranila izlaske na tri dana. Pa bih želio – želio bih ponovno uvesti neku strukturu u ovu sliku. To je zbilja napredno sređivanje. (pljesak) Da, u pravu ste. Nekada ljudi plješću u ovom trenutku, ali to rade pretežito u Švicarskoj. (smijeh) Mi, Švicarci, poznati smo po čokoladi i siru. Naši vlakovi stižu na vrijeme. Sretni smo samo kada stvari imaju neki red.
But to go on, here is a very good example to see. This is a picture by Joan Miro. And yeah, we can see the artist has drawn a few lines and shapes and dropped them any old way onto a yellow background. And yeah, it's the sort of thing you produce when you're doodling on the phone. (Laughter) And this is my -- (Laughter) -- you can see now the whole thing takes up far less space. It's more economical and also more efficient. With this method Mr. Miro could have saved canvas for another picture.
No nastavimo, evo jedan vrlo dobar primjer. Ovo je slika Joana Miroa. Možemo vidjeti da je umjetnik nacrtao nekoliko linija i oblika i bacio ih na žutu pozadinu kako je htio. Da, tako nešto vi napravite dok visite na telefonu. (smijeh) A ovo je moje – (smijeh) – možete vidjeti da cijela ta stvar sada zauzima puno manje mjesta. Ekonomičnije je i učinkovitije. Ovom metodom gosp. Miro je mogao sačuvati platno za drugu sliku.
But I can see in your faces that you're still a little bit skeptical. So that you can just appreciate how serious I am about all this, I brought along the patents, the specifications for some of these works, because I've had my working methods patented at the Eidgenössische Amt für Geistiges Eigentum in Bern, Switzerland. (Laughter) I'll just quote from the specification. "Laut den Kunstprüfer Dr. Albrecht --" It's not finished yet. "Laut den Kunstprüfer Dr. Albrecht Götz von Ohlenhusen wird die Verfahrensweise rechtlich geschützt welche die Kunst durch spezifisch aufgeräumte Regelmässigkeiten des allgemeinen Formenschatzes neue Wirkungen zu erzielen möglich wird."
Vidim vam na licima da ste još malo skeptični. Tek toliko da možete cijeniti koliko sam ozbiljan oko ovoga, donio sam patente, specifikacije za neka od tih dijela, jer sam svoje metode rada patentirao pri Državnom zavodu za intelektualno vlasništvo u Bernu, Švicarska. (smijeh) Citirat ću iz specifikacije. "Laut den Kunstprüfer Dr. Albrecht --" Nije još kraj. "Laut den Kunstprüfer Dr. Albrecht Götz von Ohlenhusen wird die Verfahrensweise rechtlich geschützt welche die Kunst durch spezifisch aufgeräumte Regelmässigkeiten des allgemeinen Formenschatzes neue Wirkungen zu erzielen möglich wird."
Ja, well I could have translated that, but you would have been none the wiser. I'm not sure myself what it means but it sounds good anyway. I just realized it's important how one introduces new ideas to people, that's why these patents are sometimes necessary. I would like to do a short test with you. Everyone is sitting in quite an orderly fashion here this morning. So I would like to ask you all to raise your right hand. Yeah. The right hand is the one we write with, apart from the left-handers. And now, I'll count to three. I mean, it still looks very orderly to me. Now, I'll count to three, and on the count of three I'd like you all to shake hands with the person behind you. OK? One, two, three. (Laughter)
Mogao sam ovo prevesti, ali ne biste bili mudriji. Ni sam nisam siguran što to znači, ali zvuči jako dobro. Upravo sam shvatio da je važno kako netko predstavlja nove ideje ljudima, zato su ti patenti nekada potrebni. Napravio bih rado kratki test s vama. Svi ovdje sjede u staromodnom redu. Želio bih vas zamoliti da svi dignete desnu ruku. Daa. Desna ruka je ona kojom pišemo, svi osim ljevaka. A sada, brojat ću do tri. Mislim, meni još uvijek izgleda uredno. A sada, brojat ću do tri. Na broj tri želio bih da se svi rukujete s osobom iza vas. OK? Jedan, dva, tri. (smijeh)
You can see now, that's a good example: even behaving in an orderly, systematic way can sometimes lead to complete chaos. So we can also see that very clearly in this next painting. This is a painting by the artist, Niki de Saint Phalle. And I mean, in the original it's completely unclear to see what this tangle of colors and shapes is supposed to depict. But in the tidied up version, it's plain to see that it's a sunburnt woman playing volleyball. (Laughter) Yeah, it's a -- this one here, that's much better. That's a picture by Keith Haring. (Laughter) I think it doesn't matter. So, I mean, this picture has not even got a proper title. It's called "Untitled" and I think that's appropriate.
Možete sada vidjeti, to je dobar primjer: čak i kada se ponašate uredno, sistematski, red ponekad može izazvati potpuni kaos. Možemo to vidjeti vrlo jasno na ovoj sljedećoj slici. To je slika umjetnika Niki de Saint Phallea. U originalu je potpuno nejasno što bi taj splet boja i oblika trebao prikazivati. Ali u uređenijoj verziji, jasno se vidi da je to žena koja je izgorjela na suncu i igra odbojku. (smijeh) Da, to je – ova ovdje je puno bolja. To je slika Keitha Haringa. (smijeh) Mislim da ne smeta. Ova slika nije dobila čak ni pogodan naslov. Zove se „Bez naslova” i mislim da je to prikladno.
So, in the tidied-up version we have a sort of Keith Haring spare parts shop. (Laughter) This is Keith Haring looked at statistically. One can see here quite clearly, you can see we have 25 pale green elements, of which one is in the form of a circle. Or here, for example, we have 27 pink squares with only one pink curve. I mean, that's interesting. One could extend this sort of statistical analysis to cover all Mr. Haring's various works, in order to establish in which period the artist favored pale green circles or pink squares. And the artist himself could also benefit from this sort of listing procedure by using it to estimate how many pots of paint he's likely to need in the future. (Laughter)
U ovoj uređenijoj verziji imamo nešto kao trgovinu rezervnih dijelova Keitha Haringa. (smijeh) Ovako Keith Haring izgleda statistički. Možete jasno vidjeti, možete vidjeti da imamo 25 blijedo zelenih elemenata, od kojih jedan u obliku kruga. Ili ovdje, na primjer, imamo 27 ružičastih kvadrata sa samo jednim ružičastim zavojem. Mislim, to je zanimljivo. Netko može produbiti ove statističke analize na sva dijela gosp. Haringa. Kako bi odredio u kojem je periodu umjetnik više volio blijede zelene krugove naspram ružičastih kvadrata. Umjetniku samom bi koristilo ovo popisivanje, saznao bi koliko kanti boja će vjerojatno trebati u budućnosti. (smijeh)
One can obviously also make combinations. For example, with the Keith Haring circles and Kandinsky's dots. You can add them to all the squares of Paul Klee. In the end, one has a list with which one then can arrange. Then you categorize it, then you file it, put that file in a filing cabinet, put it in your office and you can make a living doing it. (Laughter) Yeah, from my own experience. So I'm -- (Laughter) Actually, I mean, here we have some artists that are a bit more structured. It's not too bad. This is Jasper Johns. We can see here he was practicing with his ruler. (Laughter)
MOgle bi se, očito, raditi i kombinacije. Na primjer, s krugovima Keitha Haringa i točkama Kandinskog. Možete ih dodati svim kvadratima Paula Kleea. Na kraju, dobijemo popis uz koji se sve to može poslagati. Tada sve to kategorizirate, spremite u datoteku, nju spremite u ormar, stavite zatim u svoj ured i možete živjeti radeći to. (smijeh) Iz mog iskustva. Ja sam – (smijeh) Zapravo, mislim, imamo umjetnike koji su više strukturirani. Nije to loše. Ovo je Jasper Johns. Možemo vidjeti da je vježbao sa svojim ravnalom. (smijeh)
But I think it could still benefit from more discipline. And I think the whole thing adds up much better if you do it like this. (Laughter) And here, that's one of my favorites. Tidying up Rene Magritte -- this is really fun. You know, there is a -- (Laughter) I'm always being asked what inspired me to embark on all this. It goes back to a time when I was very often staying in hotels. So once I had the opportunity to stay in a ritzy, five-star hotel. And you know, there you had this little sign -- I put this little sign outside the door every morning that read, "Please tidy room." I don't know if you have them over here. So actually, my room there hasn't been tidied once daily, but three times a day. So after a while I decided to have a little fun, and before leaving the room each day I'd scatter a few things around the space. Like books, clothes, toothbrush, etc. And it was great. By the time I returned everything had always been neatly returned to its place. But then one morning, I hang the same little sign onto that picture by Vincent van Gogh. (Laughter) And you have to say this room hadn't been tidied up since 1888. And when I returned it looked like this. (Laughter) Yeah, at least it is now possible to do some vacuuming. (Laughter)
Ali mislim da bi mogao imati koristi od još discipline. Mislim da se cijela stvar bolje slaže ako učinite nešto ovakvo. (smijeh) A ovo, to je jedna od mojih najdražih. Uređivanje Rene Magritte – ovo je zbilja zabavno. Znate, tu je – (smijeh) Pitali su me što me inspiriralo na sve ovo. To seže od vremena kada sam vrlo često odsjedao u hotelima. Jednom sam imao priliku odsjesti u hotelu s pet zvjezdica. Tamo je bio taj mali znak – stavljao sam taj mali znak na vanjsku stranu vrata svako jutro, glasilo je „Molim vas uredite sobu.” Ne znam imate li to i ovdje. Zapravo, moja soba nije bila sređivana jednom dnevno, već tri puta dnevno. Poslije nekog vremena, odlučio sam se malo zabaviti i prije izlaska iz sobe, svaki dan razbacao bih nekoliko stvari po sobi. Knjige, odjeću, četkicu za zube itd. Bilo je odlično. Do vremena kad sam se vratio sve je uvijek uredno vraćeno na svoje mjesto. Jedno jutro, stavio sam taj isti mali znak na sliku Vincenta van Gogha. (smijeh) Možemo reći da ova soba nije bila sređivana od 1888. Kad sam se vratio, izgledalo je ovako. (smijeh) Da, ali barem je sada moguće usisavati. (smijeh)
OK, I mean, I can see there are always people that like reacting that one or another picture hasn't been properly tidied up. So we can make a short test with you. This is a picture by Rene Magritte, and I'd like you all to inwardly -- like in your head, that is -- to tidy that up. So it's possible that some of you would make it like this. (Laughter) Yeah? I would actually prefer to do it more this way. Some people would make apple pie out of it. But it's a very good example to see that the whole work was more of a handicraft endeavor that involved the very time-consuming job of cutting out the various elements and sticking them back in new arrangements. And it's not done, as many people imagine, with the computer, otherwise it would look like this. (Laughter)
OK, vidim da uvijek postoje ljudi koji reagiraju da jedna ili druga slika nisu ispravno uređene. Možemo napraviti kratak test. Ovo je slika Rene Magritte i htio bih da ju svi vi – u mislima – uredite. Moguće je da neki od vas to naprave ovako. (smijeh) Da? Ja bih zapravo to više volio ovako. Neki ljudi bi napravili pitu od jabuka od toga. Ali je dobar primjer da vidite kako je cijeli rad više kao neka rukotvorina koja je uključivala dugotrajan posao rezanja raznih elemenata i priljepljivanja ih natrag u nove aranžmane. Nije napravljeno, kako mnogo ljudi misli, računalom, jer bi to onda izgledalo ovako. (smijeh)
So now I've been able to tidy up pictures that I've wanted to tidy up for a long time. Here is a very good example. Take Jackson Pollock, for example. It's -- oh, no, it's -- that's a really hard one. But after a while, I just decided here to go all the way and put the paint back into the cans. (Applause) Or you could go into three-dimensional art. Here we have the fur cup by Meret Oppenheim. Here I just brought it back to its original state. (Laughter) But yeah, and it's great, you can even go, you know -- Or we have this pointillist movement for those of you who are into art. The pointillist movement is that kind of paintings where everything is broken down into dots and pixels. And then I -- this sort of thing is ideal for tidying up. (Laughter)
Sada mogu urediti slike koje sam htio urediti već dulje vrijeme. Evo dobar primjer. Uzmite Jackson Pollocka, na primjer. To je – ne, to je – vrlo težak primjer. Ali nakon nekog vremena, odlučio sam otići do kraja i vratiti boje natrag u kantu. (pljesak) Ili biste mogli otići u trodimenzionalnu umjetnost. Ovdje imamo Krznenu šalicu Mereta Oppenheima. Ovdje sam ju samo vratio u originalno stanje. (smijeh) Da, odlično je, možete čak otići, znate – ili imamo ovaj poentilistički pokret za sve one koji vole umjetnost. Poentilistički pokret su takve slike gdje je sve rastavljeno na točkice i pixele. Ovako nešto je kao stvoreno za uređivanje. (smijeh)
So I once applied myself to the work of the inventor of that method, Georges Seurat, and I collected together all his dots. And now they're all in here. (Laughter) You can count them afterwards, if you like. You see, that's the wonderful thing about the tidy up art idea: it's new. So there is no existing tradition in it. There is no textbooks, I mean, not yet, anyway. I mean, it's "the future we will create." (Laughter) But to round things up I would like to show you just one more. This is the village square by Pieter Bruegel. That's how it looks like when you send everyone home. (Laughter) Yeah, maybe you're asking yourselves where old Bruegel's people went? Of course, they're not gone. They're all here. (Laughter) I just piled them up. (Laughter)
Jednom sam htio to primijeniti kod izumitelja te metode, Georgesa Seurata, pokušao sam skupiti sve točkice. Sada su sve ovdje. (smijeh) Možete ih poslije prebrojati, ako želite. Vidite, to je prekrasna stvar kod uređivanja umjetnosti: novo je. Nema nikakve tradicije. Nema udžbenika. Mislim, ne još. To je "budućnost koju ćemo stvoriti." (smijeh) Ali da zaokružimo, htio bih vam pokazati još jednu stvar. Ovo je Seoski trg Pietera Bruegela. Ovako to izgleda kad ih sve pošaljete kući. (smijeh) Možda se pitate kamo su svi ti ljudi otišli? Naravno, nisu otišli. Još su ovdje. (smijeh) Samo sam ih sakupio. (smijeh)
So I'm -- yeah, actually I'm kind of finished at that moment. And for those who want to see more, I've got my book downstairs in the bookshop. And I'm happy to sign it for you with any name of any artist. (Laughter) But before leaving I would like to show you, I'm working right now on another -- in a related field with my tidying up art method. I'm working in a related field. And I started to bring some order into some flags. Here -- that's just my new proposal here for the Union Jack. (Laughter) And then maybe before I leave you ... yeah, I think, after you have seen that I have to leave anyway. (Laughter) Yeah, that was a hard one. I couldn't find a way to tidy that up properly, so I just decided to make it a little bit more simpler. (Laughter) Thank you very much. (Applause)
Dakle, ja – zapravo gotov sam za sada. Za sve koji žele vidjeti više, imam knjigu dolje u knjižari. Rado ću vam je potpisati imenom bilo kojeg umjetnika. (smijeh) Prije nego što odete htio bih vam pokazati, radim sada na nečem drugom – na polju povezanom s mojim uređivanjem umjetnosti. Počeo sam dovoditi u red neke zastave. Ovdje – samo moj novi prijedlog za britansku zastavu. (smijeh) Možda prije nego odem... mislim, nakon što ste to vidjeli, ionako moram otići. (smijeh) Da, to je bilo malo teže. Nisam to uspio urediti ispravno, pa sam to odlučio samo malo pojednostaviti. (smijeh) Hvala vam puno. (pljesak)